ESA leads high-level forum with industry
ESA and industry work closely to bring world-class achievements in space to serve its citizens and fuel Europe’s industrial competitiveness. ESA’s annual High-Level Forum with Industry brought together key stakeholders last week to share insights and proposals that will shape Europe’s future in space.
ESA gathered CEOs from Europe’s major industrialists, midcaps and startup companies, the European Commission and the European Investment Fund and Delegations from ESA Member States for open and informal exchanges.
ESA’s Director General, Josef Aschbacher, and Alain Godard, CEO at the European Investment Fund which works with ESA, delivered keynote speeches to 70 participants at the event on 6 September at ESTEC, ESA’s technical centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.
For the ESA DG and his directors such open discussions with the leaders of industry are particularly important in a year marked by on-going crises and the imminent Council Meeting at Ministerial Level (CM22) in Paris this November.
Representatives from three industry working groups – large system integrators, midcaps, and small and medium-sized enterprises reported on the challenges faced by the European space industry and put forward potential solutions.
Four roundtable discussions explored: science and exploration, space transportation, and technology; challenges of industry; applications, safety and security; and the transformation of ESA in the growing commercialisation of space.
ESA also shared proposals for new programmes which will be presented at CM22.
Géraldine Naja, Director of Commercialisation, Industry and Procurement at ESA concluded the event, adding: “As demonstrated today during the very fruitful exchanges, all actors of the space sector must work together to address the major challenges that we are facing and at the same time prepare for the future. There is no choice but to re-invent ourselves and ESA will transform itself too.”